


Until I Can't

by queen_of_hells_bells



Series: So I got bored... [9]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, M/M, Not Happy, Old Age, Post-Canon, Sad, at all, au kinda, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 12:53:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1388395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_of_hells_bells/pseuds/queen_of_hells_bells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This isn't happy. It's really not. So if that's what you want...just...go away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until I Can't

“Hello.” Dean smiled at the grey-haired man before him, taking in his startled expression with the same sense of absurd happiness he’d come to expect with this kind of occasion. “Mind if I sit here?”

The man tilted his head, squinting his eyes just a little bit as he regarded Dean. “No. Not at all. Please.” There was a pause as he waited for Dean to sit before he cracked a barely-there smile and winked. “As long as that second coffee’s for me.”

Dean laughed along with the man. “Deal. Don’t know why I got two anyway.” He held out the coffee, waiting for the man to take it before extending the same hand. “Dean Winchester.”

“Castiel Novak.” Dean nodded, swallowing lightly and hoping Castiel didn’t notice. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dean Winchester.” He watched as Castiel took a sip of the coffee before tilting his head back and sighing. “This is...perfect. How’d you know?” Castiel shot Dean a sideways glance, making him flush.

“I...may have listened to your order the last few days so I knew what to get you.” He chuffed a light laugh at Castiel’s startled expression. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now, just couldn’t quite work up the nerve. Watching you sit here with your notebook...I just...I felt like we already knew each other.”

The squinty-eye head-tilt was back, which Dean found annoyingly adorable. “That’s...ok.”

“Ok? A perfect stranger tells you he’s been watching you for days and all you say is ‘ok’?” Castiel raised an eyebrow. “Not that I want you to say anything different! It’s just...ok.” Dean trailed off awkwardly, making Castiel smile at him.

“You said you wanted to talk?” Castiel had closed his notebook now, and was looking at Dean expectantly, only breaking eye contact to take a sip of his coffee. “What did you want to talk about?”

Dean’s eyes dulled briefly before brightening again. “Well, Cas, do you belive in angels?”

The two talked for hours, mostly just Cas listening to Dean tell a story about angels, the apocalypse, monsters, and two hunters called Sam and Dean. He admitted that he’d wanted to talk to Cas because the main angel in the story was called Castiel, and he’d found the fact quite amusing. They each drank about four more cups of coffee, and felt more connected than they’d had to anyone else in the past.

They’d almost finished the story (Cas became human, and he and Dean were falling headfirst into a romance) when a nurse appeared behind Cas. “Mr. Novak?”

Cas turned with an annoyed look in his eye. “Yes, Meg? What do you want, can’t it wait?” He turned back to Dean, who had to quickly avert his eyes from where he’d been silently pleading with Meg for just a few more minutes. “Meg’s been with me as long as I can remember. I love her, I do, but she always picks the worst times to interrupt.”

“No, it’s fine. I understand.” Dean reached for Cas’ coffee cup, only to have the other man’s hand land on top of his. He looked up into pleading blue eyes and sighed. “Let’s meet back here tomorrow, ok? I’ll finish the story.”

Cas smiled, a real, heart wrenchingly happy smile. “I’d love that, Dean Winchester. Till tomorrow.”

“Till tomorrow, Cas.”

Still smiling, Cas pulled himself out of his chair and grabbed his cane, leaning on Meg’s arm as they exited the cafeteria. Dean stayed slumped in his own chair, waiting the the still hulking form of his little brother to appear.

“Dean.” Just on time, like always. “Dean, you can’t keep doing this.”

“Yes I can, Sammy.”

Sam’s face peered across the table at him, concerned. “Look, Dean. I know you promised him forever--”

“Damn straight I did.”

Ah, there was the oh-so-familiar bitchface Dean had come to know and love. “Yeah, but he won’t remember you in an hour. The only reason he remembers Meg is because of her weird demon voodoo or something. You’re just hurting yourself here. You’ve got to let go. He’ll never know.”

Dean sighed, fiddling his wedding ring and moving the wrinkles on his finger that hadn’t been there when the ring had appeared. “I know, Sammy. He’d never know. But _I’d_ know. And besides...I promised. Forever. I can’t break that promise, alright?”

“Dean, I just…why?”

He sighed again. It seemed to be his default soundtrack these days. “Because...because when I do, he’s happy again, and it’s like having Cas back. And when you love someone, Sammy, you do anything to make them happy. So it’s worth it, having him be happy with me for those few hours, even if he’s happy for he same reason every day. And so help me Sammy, I’ll go down to that cafeteria at 10:35 with two cups of coffee and tell him the story of his own life every day from now until the day I die if I have to, just to make him smile.”

Sam looked at his brother carefully, searching for any signs of tears. There hadn’t been any for awhile, but sometimes even he broke down and let it out. But today there was nothing, not a single tear, just pure determination. It made Dean look younger again; it was the same face he’d worn the day he’d first kissed Cas, the day he’d decided to propose, the day they’d gotten married. It was...love.

He nodded. “Ok.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry?


End file.
